Category: Australian News

The Australian Government will boost the country’s aerial firefighting capabilities by $11 million.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this additional funding would see more specialised firefighting aircraft take to the skies to keep Australians safe this summer.
“In response to the request from our national fire chiefs we’re backing our firefighters and our water bombing fleet with an extra $11 million boost. That’s on top of the $15 million we already deliver each year for aerial firefighting to tackle what has already been a devastating fire season,” the Prime Minister said.
“Each bushfire season we take the advice of the states and experts about what we can do to keep Australians safe. As we continue into this hot and dry bushfire season we want to ensure our fireys get the aerial support they need and have asked for.
“We saw how useful our extra support was last season which is why we’re boosting it again this year.
“As we’ve said all along, my government stands ready to deliver whatever further assistance is asked of us by the states as they battle these devastating fires.”
Minister for Natural Disaster and Emergency Management David Littleproud said the additional funding announced today would enable annual lease periods of firefighting aircraft to be extended and ensures the right mix and type of aircraft are available to protect communities this summer.
“We recognise the vital role that aerial firefighting plays in protecting communities, essential infrastructure, and environmental values, as well as supporting firefighters on the ground,” Minister Littleproud said.
“Once again, we owe a debt of gratitude to our career and volunteer emergency services who are out there protecting our communities in the face of very difficult conditions.”
“It is clear we are facing longer and more intense seasons, and as this summer has only just begun we have already seen devastating fires tear through communities right across the country.
“Sadly, bushfires are part of the Australian landscape and while we cannot always prevent them, we can prepare for them and ensure that we are responding in the most effective way.”
The National Aerial Firefighting Centre has more than 140 aircraft at its disposal to be directed to wherever they are needed. These aircraft, contracted on behalf of state and territory governments, are supplemented by additional state owned, and state contracted aircraft and other aircraft hired to meet peak demand across Australia. In total more than 500 aircraft, provided by over 150 operators, are available for firefighting across Australia.

The Australian Greens have slammed Liberal and Labor for their climate failures and embrace of coal, both on the international stage and the while tackling the bushfires crisis currently crippling the east coast of Australia.
Greens’ spokesperson for the climate crisis, Adam Bandt MP said:
“In the middle of a climate emergency, the Liberals are overseas trying to cheat their way out of our climate obligations and Labor is spitting in the face of bushfire victims by spruiking coal.
“As Australia burns and Sydney chokes, glorifying coal is insensitive and utterly offensive.
“Coal is the biggest contributor to global warming. Coal fuelling these fires, coal is fuelling the Sydney smoke and coal is making the drought worse.
“Overseas in Madrid, Angus Taylor is cooking the books, trying to use dodgy accounting tricks to meet our climate obligations and the rest of the world is pushing back.
“Australia cheated the Kyoto Agreement by insisting on the right to increase pollution and the Liberals are trying to cheat their way out of the Paris Agreement too.
Responding to the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, Mr Bandt said: “The main problem isn’t little Lucifers in the suburbs, it’s devils in Canberra with coal in their hands and denial in their heads.”
Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Richard Di Natale said:
“What we’ve seen from Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese is climate hypocrisy, when we so desperately need climate leadership.
“Coal is the biggest cause of the climate crisis and in the middle of a climate emergency the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader should be talking about a plan to transition away from coal. Instead, they are cheerleading coal, touring regional Queensland with new Akubras, and offering coal communities false promises that their industry will continue indefinitely.
“Australia has been calling out for collaborative action to address the climate crisis. Right now, we have a bipartisan consensus to fail. Bipartisanship is pointless if all it does it leads to is more coal, and a refusal to tackle action to address the climate crisis.”

Labor backs calls today from former fire and emergency chiefs to hold a national summit on bushfire preparedness in our changing climate.
We have heard repeatedly from this group of ex-fire chiefs and organisations such as the Red Cross that our nation is not prepared for the increasing frequency and intensity of future natural disasters.
So far this bushfire season, the Prime Minister has:

• Refused to meet with ex-fire chiefs, who wanted to warn him about the dangerous conditions we now face,
• Dismissed Labor’s suggestion to hold an urgent COAG meeting to ensure Australia was prepared for future bushfires and other natural disasters, and
• Rejected concerns about fatigue among our volunteer firefighters, saying “they want to be there”.

It’s time Scott Morrison swallowed his pride, showed leadership and brought together fire chiefs, scientists, farmers and our defence forces, to plan for the future.
Disaster preparedness is a national issue which deserves national leadership.
Unfortunately, leadership is not what we see from the Prime Minister, who continue to bury his head in the sand, ignoring the warnings and pleas from experts, scientists and communities.
It’s time Scott Morrison listened to the experts and ensured Australia is disaster ready.
We need a national plan to ensure Australia has the resources and coordination to effectively manage future bushfires and natural disasters.

The second exposure draft of the Liberals’ Religious Discrimination legislation has made already bad legislation even worse.

“The Liberals have massively widened the scope of the legislation, which will increase the number of organisations that will be able to discriminate,” Greens Justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said.

“The legislation maintains its undermining of state-based protections against discrimination, including Tasmania’s nation-leading laws.”

“This whole process has always been a smokescreen for bigotry.”

Greens LGBTIQ+ spokesperson Janet Rice said:

“This has been a sham of a process to appease the far-right of Morrison’s party, letting them chip away at the rights of LGBTIQ+ people and other minorities.”

“The Attorney General’s second exposure draft remains a Trojan horse for hate.”

“Despite the concerns expressed by a raft of legal, faith and LGBTIQ+ organisations, it appears that the bill still includes the potential for a manager to tell their employees, ‘your homosexual lifestyle is a sin’, or a counsellor to encourage their client to pray for healing of their ‘sexual brokeness’.”

“This kind of bigotry cannot stand. Any Bill that comes to the parliament must ensure all Australians are treated equally.”

“The bill should only act as a shield for people of faith, not as a sword to be used against other minority groups.”

Australian Greens Senator and Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to reports hundreds of Australian cattle sold for breeding to the Indonesian Government in 2018 are malnourished or dead. This new scandal has highlighted the lack of protections for breeder and dairy cattle. Senator Faruqi has called for the release of the full report into the incident.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Yet again, we see the callousness of the live export industry with photos of Australian cattle dead or severely malnourished. These animals have clearly suffered immensely because of the live export industry’s indifference to animal welfare.
“Thousands of breeder cattle have gone to Indonesia and we have no way of knowing what happened to them or even if they are still alive and being treated humanely. There is a huge loophole in the live export industry that really risks the welfare of breeder cattle because the Government is more interested in money than animal welfare.
“We’ve seen the debacle with dairy cattle in Sri Lanka where hundreds died and many more fell sick, so I am really concerned with the fate of these animals. The Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) system monitoring animals sent for slaughter is flawed but at least it is something. These poor cattle seem to have no monitoring at all so it is imperative they are included in ESCAS.
“When Livecorp had the opportunity to update Parliament on what was happening with these breeder cattle, they completely obfuscated. This really raises the question of what are they hiding. Where there is smoke, there is fire and we must get to the bottom of it. They must be transparent and release the full report,” she concluded.

The Morrison Government’s decision not to consider the impacts of Adani sucking up 12.5 billion litres of water from a region in deep drought shows the Government has been completely captured by big mining companies, according to Greens Co-Deputy Leader and Mining spokesperson, environmental lawyer Senator Larissa Waters.
“What an insult to Queensland farmers that on the same day as two-thirds of the state is drought declared, Adani gets another freebie from another government they have donated to.
“Our environmental laws are pathetically weak. They haven’t required the climate impacts of Adani’s mine to be considered before approval was issued, and now they don’t require the water impacts of a pipeline for water to wash that coal with to be considered.
“These 20 year old environmental laws ignore climate impacts and now ignore water impacts, and are working perfectly for all the mining companies who donate to the Liberal party. I hope that this decision gets challenged for a second time in court.
“If you ever needed a better example that this government has sold out to big mining, this is it.
“Adani can’t get insurance and have had to self-fund after more than a dozen global financiers ruled out funding its climate-bomb coal mine. They have made false promises about jobs, when regional Queensland is desperate for real jobs and for protection of their drought-stricken lands and precious water resources.
“We won’t get real action on the climate emergency driving the drought until big mining companies stop making donations to political parties and stop calling the shots,” Senator Waters said.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi has reacted to the revelation that she was a target of an organised far right network of Facebook pages that are profiting from thousands of hateful posts a week that have targeted high profile Muslim women across the world. Senator Faruqi was the first Muslim woman to sit in an Australian parliament.
Senator Faruqi will refer the investigation and attacks on her to the Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media established by the Senate this week.
She said:
“This is a new level of far right organisation and coordination which platforms Islamophobia, division and hatred towards Muslims and directs it at individuals.
“These far right pages demonstrate just how pervasive racism has been allowed to become, and how disturbingly far it can reach via social media through concerted campaigns.
“This is clearly coordinated and the use of social media to spread racist fake news to attack me is something we should all be concerned about. I will be making a submission to the newly established Senate committee investigating foreign interference via social media and call on investigate and hold Facebook to account.
“The crap these pages are publishing sounds like the hateful far right talking points that have found a home, willing ears and loud voices in parliament’s and sections of the media.
“We know the far right relies on social media to legitimise their hate and recruit. Muslim women politicians tick both of their misogyny and racism boxes, so I end up as a target of a lot of their racist content.
“I’ve experienced a huge increase in racist and abusive social media comments, emails, phone calls and even hand written letters since I’ve been in the public eye. There’s no doubt in my mind that many of the people behind these vile messages are emboldened by others on social media and Facebook pages like this.
“Social media has become a really toxic place. This kind of coordinated abuse causes real harm and is designed to silence me and other muslim women. The comments on these posts are a horrific feeding frenzy of racism, fake news and hate towards Muslims.
“By allowing racist and misleading posts, social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, are profiteering from the proliferation of hate speech and abuse. Facebook could shut these pages down, forgo the profit they make from these pages and strengthen their policies on hate speech, but so long as they continue to profit from the reach and engagement, they don’t seem to be interested in decisive action.
“Facebook and other social media companies should be accountable for hate speech and threats that occur on their platforms. Online hate speech has real world consequences for people, their safety, mental health and families. Platforms are not doing enough to combat hate, harassment and intimidation.
“Platforms should take responsibility but Governments must also make and enforce laws that hold these big money-making platforms to account for publishing hate speech and allowing harassment,” she concluded.

Greens Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has reacted to Million Dollar Chase “consolation winner” Nangar Jack testing positive for EPO.
She said:
“This incident confirms that greyhound racing has not and cannot clean up its act. The trainer should be punished and banned, but this is not remotely an isolated incident. To protect greyhounds, this cruel industry must be shut down once and for all.
“This race is nothing but a million dollar farce with Government funding propping up a failing, abusive industry.
“Our analysis shows that in the three months to June this year there were 26 investigations, including drugging of greyhounds, some with arsenic, unauthorised export of greyhounds, extreme animal cruelty and live baiting.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that thousands of dogs have died and been seriously injured since the Labor, Liberal and National parties combined to overturn the ban on greyhound racing.
“I’ve been keeping track of the racing statistics and since Baird backflipped on the ban almost 200 dogs have died on track and more than 4000 have been injured. This is just the tip of the iceberg because the industry doesn’t release the stewards reports for a large number of greyhound racing tracks in New South Wales. These figures also don’t include greyhounds killed off track for injuries or because they are supposedly unable to be rehomed.
“Greyhound racing must be shut down,” she concluded.

The epidemic of scandals involving Liberal parliamentarians continues with Liberal MP Gladys Liu linked to a donor at the centre of a money laundering probe by Australian authorities.
Greens co-deputy leader Larissa Waters said, “It’s time to end cash-for-access and get the influence of big money and dodgy donors out of politics.
“Prime Minister Morrison should stop the protection racket for Ms Liu and his embattled Ministers and stop the rot by capping political donations and election spending.
“Both the Coalition and the Labor Party say they want to tackle undue foreign influence on politics but they won’t clean up political donations, because they are addicted to the money.
“If Australia capped political donations and election spending, we could address all those seeking to interfere in our democracy, whether they are foreign powers, corporate interests or donors with an agenda.
“The Greens want to cap all political donations at $1,000 per year and ban outright political donations from the mining, property development and gambling industries.
“Every member of parliament should act in the best interests of the community, not for their own self-interest and profit.
“It’s time Australia removed the corrupting influence of money in politics and give democracy back to the people,” she said.

Australian Greens Senator and Education Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi has called the proposed merger of the Department of Education with Skills and Employment a huge mistake.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Merging the departments of education and employment is a short-sighted decision that highlights the Government’s narrow, neoliberal idea of education. Education is a public good essential to building a socially and economically just society, not just an avenue to employment or profit – it demands a standalone focus.
“Already this year the merger of skills with the employment department has undermined lifelong education and continued the Liberal-Nationals disastrous record on vocational training. This decision takes us further down this path and is a huge mistake.
“Mergers inevitably result in huge amounts of money wasted on consultants and some new letterheads while nothing is done to properly fund public schools or save TAFE,” she concluded.